How to send invites to my customers automatically?

With the eTrusted review platform you can collect authentic reviews easily. The automated invite dispatch is triggered by events and controlled by your settings in the eTrusted Control Centre.

This article teaches you why using automation for review invites is valuable and how to set it up correctly.

According to the GDPR, it is mandatory to seek consent of the recipient before dispatching invites automatically or manually. More information is provided here: Consent for review invites.

What are the advantages of an automated invite delivery?

An automated invite dispatch has a major advantage over a manual invite dispatch: You only need to set up automated invite dispatch once. The eTrusted review platform then controls the dispatch of your review invites without you having to do anything else. 

How do I set up an automated invite dispatch?

You set up the automated invite dispatch in the eTrusted Control Centre. Among other things, you determine...

... which event type should trigger the sending of invites.

... how much time should pass between the event and the invite being sent.

... which e-mail and questionnaire template will be sent to your customers.

Set up an automated invite dispatch for Service Reviews

1. Log in to the eTrusted Control Centre.
   
2. Click on the gear symbol ("Settings") () in the main navigation area. Then click on "Channel Settings" ().
3. Select the channel () that you want to set up an automated invite sending for.
4. Open the "Optimise review collection" tab (). Then, open the "Service Reviews" tab ().
   
5. Use the drop-down menu "Optimise review collection for:" () to select the event types for which you want to define an invite rule.
6. Turn the activation switch in the upper right corner () to green.

7. Use the drop-down menus "Schedule send out" () to select how many days after the event and the time that a review invite should be sent to your customers.
8. Should the set time period not begin with the event, but with an activation date submitted by you? Then check off "Apply trigger date" (). Please note that the setting you apply here also applies to your Product Reviews.

9. Would you like to send a reminder to your customers if they don't submit a review after receiving the first review invite? Tick "Send a reminder" (). Then use the drop-down menu () to determine how many days should pass between sending the first review invite and the reminder.

10. Use the drop-down menu "Email" () to select the desired email template.

11. Use the "Questionnaire" drop-down menu () to select the desired questionnaire template.

12. Would you like to apply the settings made for the selected event to all your channels? Then check off "Apply to all my channels" ().
13. Click on "Save" ().

You have now set up and activated an automated invite dispatch for your Service Reviews.

Set up an automated invite dispatch for Product Reviews

1. Open the tab “Product Reviews” () in the “Optimise review collection” overview ().

To be able to collect Product Reviews, you must first book them. If you have not yet booked any Product Reviews, this overview will appear:

Click on "Contact Sales" if you are interested in collecting product reviews.

2. Turn the activation switch in the upper right corner () to green.

3. Use the drop-down menu “Schedule send out” () to select how many days after the event and the time that an invite for Product Reviews should be sent to your customers.

4. Should the set time period not begin with the event, but with an activation date submitted by you? Then check off "Apply trigger date" (). Please note that your settings here also apply to your Service Reviews.

5. Would you like to send a reminder to your customers if they don't submit a review after receiving the first review invite? Tick "Send a reminder" (). Then use the drop-down menu () to determine how many days should pass between sending the first review invite and the reminder.

6. Should a review of your products only be possible if a review comment is submitted as well? Then check off the box "Focus on customer insights by making comments mandatory" ().

7. Would you like to apply the settings you have made to all your channels? Then check off "Apply to all my channels" ().
8. Click on "Save" ().

You have now set up and activated the automated invite dispatch for your Product Reviews.

As soon as your settings for the automated invite dispatch are active, review invites are automatically sent to your customers based on the set rules. The trigger is the set event.

These rules also apply if you use our Reputation Manager and send invites to invite customers to rate you on other platforms such as Trustpilot to thereby optimise your digital reputation there too.

Tip: Our Reputation Manager supports you in optimising your rating effortlessly and automatically on additional review platforms such as Trustpilot. You can specify what percentage of all review invites should not be forwarded to Trusted Shops but to external review platforms. Find out more about the functions here:
Reputation Manager – all you need to know

Won't customers get too many review invites when there are multiple touchpoints?

We currently already have a very wide range of rules to prevent customers from receiving e-mails from us too frequently. For example, there is an “anti spam” rule for this purpose and the number of review requests can be limited. We will keep developing these rules on an ongoing basis.

Sometimes it can be useful to manually invite customers to submit a review. You find everything you need to know about this right here:
- How can I manually invite customers for review with the Review Collector?
- How to create a CSV file to send manual review invites
- No incoming reviews, what now?